About the Dashers
Founded in 1981 in Datchet (hence the name), the Datchet Dashers are now based in Windsor Hockey and Cricket Club, Home Park, Datchet Road, Windsor.
Our club nights are Tuesdays and Thursdays, meeting at 7p.m with runners setting off for their runs around 7.15p.m. New members of all abilities are always welcome.
On Tuesdays we have structured training sessions which include activities like hill repetitions, interval training, fartlek and track sessions, which start/end with a 1 mile warm up/cool down. Thursday nights are for longer runs - there are usually quite a few different paced groups (from quite slow to very fast) who tend to run ~7 miles, although often there is a slow 4 mile group. On the last Thursday of the month we do a 5K time trial (again including ~1mile warm up/cool down) and then go to the pub!
All training is entirely voluntary and some runners do their own thing. In addition, the club has a strong women’s section with a policy of ensuring that no woman is left to run on her own, so for safety purposes the ladies run in groups of two or more.
We have runners of all ages and levels of fitness. Club members compete in cross-country events and in road races, ranging from 5km to ultra marathon distances. We also run annual club male, female, and age-graded championships, which are run over 12 separate events of varying distance and degree of difficulty. Other highlights in the Datchet Dashers calendar include the 10km Dorney Dash held in June or July, the Dashers cross country event held in November, and finally the summer 5km event. In March the club holds a 20-mile marathon training run for local clubs, to help their members prepare properly for the London Marathon.
When not involved in athletic pursuits, the Dashers enjoy social events organised by our committee, including quiz nights and social evenings.
If you would like to join the club, please contact Tom Durance (mens’ captain) or Zoe Smart (ladies’ captain) and come down for a few training nights. When you are ready to join, fill in an